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New water well

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Faster horses

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NE WY at the foot of the Big Horn mountains
The well drillers are here. They started yesterday. In 60 years of ranching this is only the second well we have had to drill. The first one was 680' in SE Montana. The water came to within 20' of the top. It was almost artesian. We had pipelines to corrals and pastures. We never ran out of water. The drillers for this well are thinking 250' based on neighboring wells.
 

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680 feet!!!!
Wow!
Even 250 feet is expensive if you have to case off the ground water. Hope you get great water.
 
Evans said:
680 feet!!!!
Wow!
Even 250 feet is expensive if you have to case off the ground water. Hope you get great water.
Click to expand...
Praying for good water. They have to cement it down 130' because our previous well was
contaminated with Benzene (gasoline). We have a gas pipeline through our property. They
have checked for leaks in February and March they put a blanket on the pipeline. They say there is no leak. Our gas tanks were put close to the well and they
say that is what contaminated the well. We had the DEQ come and check it out, so far we haven't
seen ANY analysis since this started and they both ran tests. We had it tested ourselves because
we could smell gas in the water. The gas company has been a good neighbor up til now when
we asked them to pay for the well. They say the fault was ours, but the well driller and even DEQ says not enough gas could leak from our overhead tanks to contaminate the well. So right now, it's a stand-off.
We may have to consult an attorney.
 
Faster horses said:
Praying for good water. They have to cement it down 130' because our previous well was
contaminated with Benzene (gasoline). We have a gas pipeline through our property. They
have checked for leaks in February and March they put a blanket on the pipeline. They say there is no leak. Our gas tanks were put close to the well and they
say that is what contaminated the well. We had the DEQ come and check it out, so far we haven't
seen ANY analysis since this started and they both ran tests. We had it tested ourselves because
we could smell gas in the water. The gas company has been a good neighbor up til now when
we asked them to pay for the well. They say the fault was ours, but the well driller and even DEQ says not enough gas could leak from our overhead tanks to contaminate the well. So right now, it's a stand-off.
We may have to consult an attorney.
Click to expand...
They will never,ever admit fault. Is there some way through government to go after them because a lawyer will cost you and it seems like who ever has deepest pockets wins . example they might drag it out in court till you go broke
 
Evans said:
They will never,ever admit fault. Is there some way through government to go after them because a lawyer will cost you and it seems like who ever has deepest pockets wins . example they might drag it out in court till you go broke
Click to expand...
We won't go that far...but we will have an attorney write them a letter. We have some things on our side that should help. The gas company is looking at it again and we should hear from them this week. I told them they should have probed the ground to see if it was contaminated and their spokesman said, "we did." To which we said, "no you did not. You scratched the surface but nothing was probed 130' " which is what they should have done...according to the well driller and others who know about these things.

We will get an attorney that knows about environmental contamination. One has been recommended to us.
 
Was the EPA notified when you first started noticing the Benzene in the old well?That's who you need to get involved.The gas line company can't out lawyer or outspend the EPA.
 
Is the contaminated well cased and if so how far? How deep is it?

If the gas pipeline company didn't do core drilling between your well and their pipeline to the depth of your well casing, then they have no defense.

There is no way that your gas tank could cause this serious of contamination even if extreme carelessness in over flowing equipment and rig tanks had been going on for years. I can't imagine any rancher or farmers spilling gasoline in amounts that would do any harm to anything and even if they did, it would be surface and never get into a deep well water aquifer.

If you have a backhoe, dig a 6' deep trench half way between your gas tank and your well. Take soil samples ever foot starting at 1' down to 6' and I bet you won't find any benzene at all.

Think of all the 1000s of gallons that pass through that pipeline daily. No jury would find in the favor of the pipeline company. Any lawyer representing the pipeline, that had any honesty or respect for the law, would tell them to settle out of court. Of course with the corrupt government and EPA we have these days that is against ranching and in favor of the corporations that keep them in power, who knows what might happen. The train derailment in Ohio is a good example of how much the current EPA cares about the effected people and bows to corporations.

Having an attorney write them a letter is a good idea, but it galls me that it will cost you and not them unless you go to court.

Is the new well on the same aquifer as the old one? How far is it from the pipeline? How deep is the pipeline? Has there been any earthquake activity since the pipeline was installed?

It sure sounds to me like there is a fracture underneath the pipeline that carries any leakage directly into your aquifer. This isn't all that uncommon in areas of earthquake activity.
 
Last edited:
Faster horses said:
Praying for good water. They have to cement it down 130' because our previous well was
contaminated with Benzene (gasoline). We have a gas pipeline through our property. They
have checked for leaks in February and March they put a blanket on the pipeline. They say there is no leak. Our gas tanks were put close to the well and they
say that is what contaminated the well. We had the DEQ come and check it out, so far we haven't
seen ANY analysis since this started and they both ran tests. We had it tested ourselves because
we could smell gas in the water. The gas company has been a good neighbor up til now when
we asked them to pay for the well. They say the fault was ours, but the well driller and even DEQ says not enough gas could leak from our overhead tanks to contaminate the well. So right now, it's a stand-off.
We may have to consult an attorney.
Click to expand...
They will never,ever admit fault. Is there some way through government to go after them because a lawyer will cost you and it seems like who ever has deepest pockets wins . example they might drag it out in court till you go brok
Faster horses said:
We won't go that far...but we will have an attorney write them a letter. We have some things on our side that should help. The gas company is looking at it again and we should hear from them this week. I told them they should have probed the ground to see if it was contaminated and their spokesman said, "we did." To which we said, "no you did not. You scratched the surface but nothing was probed 130' " which is what they should have done...according to the well driller and others who know about these things.

We will get an attorney that knows about environmental contamination. One has been recommended to us.
Click to expand...
My grass was all dying in one spot above a pipeline. I complained and they came out and supposedly looked things over and said everything was fine. Then they quit using the pipeline. They technoly didn't close it because if they did they would have to dig out out and put everything back the way it was. Reclamation I think its called.
 

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